Step 1: Organize and Utilize Your Time Wisely in the hours immediately preceding the exam using the following principles:

• Plan to study no more than 3 hours the day before the exam, allowing time for study breaks.
• Get proper nutrition, sleep and exercise the day before the test to maximize performance and minimize anxiety.
• On the day of the test, take a shower; have a good breakfast; do some exercises; and perform relaxation techniques to calm any anxiety.
• Arrive in the examination room about ten minutes early, and quickly skim through your list of hard-to-remember terms and ideas. Then spend a few minutes relaxing.

Step 2: Take All Exams In A Systematic Way using the following principles:

• Write down any hard-to-remember ideas or terms you have reviewed on the back of the test.
• Read all directions carefully, and make certain that you fully understand them before attempting to answer any question.
• Budget your time during the exam. Plan how you will use your time by quickly looking over the entire test and dividing up the available time according to the number and types of questions being asked. Budget a few minutes at the end of the testing period for a quick review.
• Answer the easiest questions first. This will build your confidence, reduce anxiety and ensure that you get credit for information you know. The easier questions may provide clues for other questions.
• Read each questions carefully and completely before answering.
• Regard a lapse of memory as normal, and go on to another question.
• Return to the original question when the memory lapse passes.
• Do not attempt to be the first one finished. Follow your time budget plan for the test, and re-check your work if time permits.

Step 3: Take All Essay Tests by systematically applying the following principles:

• Read all questions through noting any related facts or ideas beside each question. Be sure to underline the action verb in each question since different verbs require different approaches in answering (e.g. illustrate, list, define).
• Budget your time for each question according to the relative difficulty and point value assigned to each question.
• Answer the easiest questions first.
• Before you start writing, make a brief organized outline for your answer to guide you in your writing.
• Get to the point of your answer in the first paragraph. Avoid lengthy introductions. Begin your response by rephrasing the question, and then state the main idea of your answer.
• Take time to write as legibly and as neatly as possible.
• Take time to re-check all your answers for content accuracy and grammatical preciseness.

Step 4: Take All Objective Tests by systematically applying the following principles:

• Answer all questions in order, but identify difficult to answer questions by making a mark in the margin so that you may return later.
• Read each question completely, and be careful not to spend too much time on any one question. Mark your best guess, and move on. Return to that question later if you have time.
• Do not over interpret the questions. Students often read too much into questions or expect "trick" questions. Simply select the answer that seems most reasonable.
• Reread all questions containing negative wording such as not or never to ensure proper understanding of the questions.
• Check for qualifying words such as all, most, some, none, always, usually, etc., to ensure proper understanding.
• Eliminate all obviously wrong responses before making a guess as to the correct answer.
• Be alert for grammatical inconsistencies between the question item and the answer response on multiple-choice questions. A response is usually wrong if it and the item do not make a grammatically correct sentence.
• First impressions (initial guesses) are best.
• True is better with general terms (most, some).
• False is better when limiting words (all, never) are used.
  B, C, D answers are best in five-answer multiple choice questions, but see next rule.
• Avoid pairs (if 28 is known to be B, don't guess B in 27 or 29).
• Exaggerated or complex answers are generally wrong.
• Non-answer (zero, none of the above) is a poor guess.
• In questions asking for the most or the least, pick the answer next to the most or least (most 5 8 8 15 30).
• When question is difficult to visualize, draw it.
• Longest multiple choice answers are best guesses.
• If two of four answers are almost identical, pick the longest of the two.
• If a few answers have five possible instead of four, pick number five.
• When two of four are opposites, pick one of those two as the best guess.
• "All of the above" is a good answer.
• A final reminder - answers often pop up in other questions - keep that thought in mind.